The Amiga changed the computer industry. It was based on a multitasking operating system, rivaled the graphics power of some workstations and was affordable enough for home users. Unfortunately, Commodore struggled to maintain Amiga's lead, and through a number of bizarre business decisions (refusing to license the Amiga design to Sun), went bankrupt. Read about the history of the Commodore Amiga at Low End Mac.

As an ex-Amiga enthusiast, a few things spring to mind. Virtual Memory is one. I believe that a 3rd party app was available for Amiga's with a non-EC CPU. I also understand that VM is a standard _now_. In the 3.1 days Amiga's did not have widespread resolution and colour depth abstraction. I seem to remember that 3rd party cards were available, and that apps could be written to use them. This, however was not a standard feature. In my mind, by the time 486DX class PC's were affordable the Amiga was stagnant and I left the platform. I still have very fond memories though, and it will always have a special place in my heart.